All posts tagged ‘scrapbooking’

A few weeks ago I had the chance to sit in a hall for 12 hours with like minded people, obsessing over detail and form, preoccupied with graphics and images. I tested new equipment that I now need to spend far too much money on, oh and I met Sarah Sidle. Here is my secret geek obsession, I am obsessed with Scrapbooking. I was at a “convention” known as a Crop, and Sarah Sidle just happened to be the name of a woman who won a door prize, it tickled me, probably only me!

For anyone involved in any kind of craft you know how obsessive it can get. People fight over supplies, pay top dollar for packages, scour stores for particular items – for me it’s alphabet stickers – and trade with other like minded people for just the right item. Like any hobbyist, we have our quirks, I will happily drive to three different stores because each sells the one particular brand of something that I like. JoAnn’s tends to have the good paper, Michael’s has the best stickers, AC Moore has the glue dots I like. This is your mother’s comic book convention, trust me on this.

Read the rest of Sarah Pinault’s adventures at the scrapbooking convention and comment over at GeekMom.

Being a father has always been one of the most interesting and challenging jobs that I’ve ever inadvertently taken on. Thankfully, the application to be a father was really easy, and quite fun. As far back as I can remember, which is pretty much back to breakfast most of the time, my own father was always on the cutting edge of using technology and creativity to chronicle my brother’s and my childhood. From simple photography to slide shows to early video cameras and editing, capturing memories had always been a priority of my father. Like him, and many of us, that goal is the same: to capture and record our children’s lives so that we can embarrass them at their weddings.

Being a geek, and especially a technology geek, changes the perspective in a way — there are more tools at our disposal. The internet has become one of these tools, whether we want it to be or not. The folks over at Google Creative Labs and BBH Labs have caught wind of the creativity happening around the internet, and are developing a series of films that will showcase the individuals out there that are using the internet in amazing and creative ways. They are focusing on the fun, the serious and the touching. One of those such videos is “Dear Sophie.”

In “Dear Sophie,” a father has found an innovative way to share memories with his young daughter. In a way it’s scrapbooking, and in another way it’s data collection. The father (and many other fathers as well) started email accounts for their children, and began sending their children photos, letters, videos and other tidbits of their lives as a way to capture memories with the intent of sharing the content at a milestone event in the child’s future. Needless to say, that’s going to be a pretty full inbox. The Google Labs folks saw this happening and were inspired, hence the video.

From a Google Labs spokesperson: “The web is a powerful platform; people use it to do amazing things. We loved the messages and emotions in these films, which showcase web heroes and their accomplishments — big and small, fun and serious — and wanted a way to share them both online and off.”

Check out the video below, then tell us in the comments how you plan on using the internet and technology to scrapbook your children’s lives.

I’m sure everyone remembers getting “Baby Books” when their kids were born. Some people filled those books in diligently, making sure to accurately record the first bath, the first solid food and of course the first tooth. My wife, who is a hardcore scrapbooker, was the keeper of these memories. As a geekdad I began wondering who was going to record the weekend science projects, the toy hacks and the names of the butterflies we raised the summer of 2007.

Photo: Jeanette Giancaspro

That’s when I bought a quadrille ruled composition book and began recording some of these wonderful moments in the geeklets lives. I have been journaling random acts of science and engineering since June of 2007. While I may have missed a few Ad Hoc experiments or a neat hack I have captured some good moments. Moments that I will always have to look back on and smile.

So if you have notebook laying around grab it and start recording those special moments you’ll treasure, like their first Comic Book, first RPG Character and of course babies first Klingon word.

Oh and by the way the Butterflies were named Coco, Dori,Coral,Small Fry and Ketchup.